When considering use of videos on YouTube or Vimeo.com in your PowerPoint presentations, they can be used if the owner permits use for presentations and public viewing. Some vimeo.com videos have a download link that allows you to download the video as a file to your computer; YouTube videos don’t have a dedicated download link.

The method I describe here creates a hyperlink from an image on your PowerPoint slide that starts playing the video in a full browser window on top of the presentation. When the browser is closed after the video finishes, the PowerPoint presentation continues.

Advantages of this method:

Does not require a video file to be downloaded or captured

Allows video to be at as high a resolution as the owner uploaded it (some people only download at lower resolutions)

Easy for even inexperienced presenters to use

Smaller file size since no embedded video

Don’t need to worry about broken video file links

Doesn’t rely on specific codecs of video files; if it plays in a browser, it will play during the presentation

Works when you send the PowerPoint file to others since the video is not a linked file

Works on both Windows and Mac platforms

Works on all versions of PowerPoint

Disadvantages of this method:

Requires an internet connection during the presentation fast enough to stream video from viemo.com or youtube.com

Viewers see browser toolbars & other parts of the browser

Viewers see the operating system task bar

May see ads on videos if the service allows them on that video

May see suggested videos after your video finishes playing

May take a few seconds for the video to start playing as the service buffers the video

Video may pause if the network is overloaded or the Internet is slow

Here are the steps to link to the video from a PowerPoint slide and have it play when the link is activated.

Step 1: Go to the web page on vimeo.com or youtube.com with the video you want to insert

Step 2: Take a screen capture of the video page (use PrtScrn in Windows or Cmd+Shift+3 in Mac). Insert the screen capture on your slide. Crop the screen capture so just the video frame is shown. Make the image as large as you want on the slide. Add text to give credit to the owner of the video.

Step 3: Select the image and add a hyperlink to the image.

For videos on vimeo.com: The hyperlink web address is http://player.vimeo.com/video/<vidnum>?autoplay=1 (where <vidnum> is the video number on vimeo.) You can find this number by clicking on the Share button on the vimeo video page. It is after the “vimeo.com/”.

This link, when activated, will open a browser window and start playing the video in the full browser window.

For videos on youtube.com: The hyperlink web address is http://www.youtube.com/embed/<vidcode>?autoplay=1 (where <vidcode> is the video code on youtube.) You can find this code by clicking on the “Share this video” link on the youtube video page. It is after the “youtu.be/”. This link, when activated, will open a browser window and start playing the video in the full browser window.

Step 4: Playing the video in the presentation

Before starting the presentation, open your default browser and make it full screen. Test that you can access a website so you know the Internet connection is working. Close your browser so it will open full screen when opened with the hyperlink.

In Slide Show mode, to play the video, activate the hyperlink on the image by clicking on it with your mouse or by pressing Tab, then Enter. The browser will open on top of the presentation and the video will start playing full sized in the browser. (If you double-click on the image, you may start the video playing behind the PowerPoint presentation. If this happens, use Alt+Tab in Windows to switch the active application to the browser window with the video.)

If you want to remove the browser scroll bars and toolbars, you can press F11 in Internet Explorer or Chrome. The only way to remove the task bar at the bottom of the screen is to set it to automatically hide itself in the operating system.

When the video has finished playing, close the browser using the red X or using Alt+F4 in Windows. You will return to the slide that started the video. You are now back in the presentation.

Note: This method uses the embed code provided by vimeo.com and youtube.com at the time this article was written in February 2014. The sites may change these codes at any time, which may break this method. This method may work in other presentation software, but has only been tested in PowerPoint.

For those who don’t mind getting a little more technical with PowerPoint, John Wilson has this tutorial on how to embed a video from Vimeo or YouTube into a slide as a Flash object.

Editor’s Note: Join Dave Paradi for a focused, hands-on workshop about turning financial and operational data from Excel into effective visuals for your presentations. Dates for these upcoming workshops are April 10 in Toronto, Ontario and May 7 in Denver, CO. For details and registration visit www.MakeNumbersVisual.com.

About the Author:

Dave Paradi runs the Think Outside the Slide website, is a consultant on high-stakes presentations, the author of seven books and a PowerPoint Most Valuable Professional (MVP.) For more information, visit www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com

I get lots of requests for information on how to post a presentation as a video to YouTube. Here are four good options:

1) Use PowerPoint 2010. It outputs to WMV format. Use the commands Choose File> Save and Send> Create a Video. Then choose from a couple of options, as you see here. You can use existing timings for each slide or assign a timing. This is the absolute easiest method.

The video output will include sounds and narration, and even embedded videos!

2) UseTechsmith Camtasia Studio. For longer presentations, and when you want editing capabilities, Camtasia is a great tool with lots of features. I use it a lot. Camtasia is video-recording software, so you run through your presentation and Camtasia creates a video. You can record your voice as you go.

For presentations under 5 minutes, Techsmith’s Jingis easy to use. Jing Pro (an easy-to-afford $14.95 per year) lets you quickly share to YouTube. Jing is also a video-capture program and you can record your narration as you go.

When you have your video output, you just upload it to YouTube the same way you would upload any other video.

About the Author:

Ellen Finkelstein is the author of How to Do Everything with PowerPoint 2007 (and 2003), 101 Tips Every PowerPoint User Should Know, 101 Advanced Techniques Every PowerPoint User Should Know and PowerPoint for Teachers: Dynamic Presentations and Interactive Classroom Projects. Her web site, www.ellenfinkelstein.com, offers the free PowerPoint Tips Newsletter, a PowerPoint Tips Blog and many ideas that help PowerPoint users create more effective presentations.